Reflective Writing Exercise - rewriting 21/03/13

I am so pleased with my progress today, even though I do have a long way to go with my project and other things I must plan and get sorted soon. I am glad to actually be doing something more free and creative today, and started drawing some sketches and writing ideas down for what my trading card game will be! So far I am really happy with my ideas, and even though my ideas at the moment are mainly based around my two favourite trading card games when I was younger, Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon, I have still been able to think of a few unique ideas too, which I certainly feel good and confident about. I think it is good to try and use your experiences and interests in your work, as I feel that work is a lot better if you can make it your own and personal, and I personally enjoy the projects where I can express who I want to be more than the projects where you have to do things in a certain way, such as my gladiator project. For my project I like the use of Pokemon's Energy card idea, and Yu-Gi-Oh has a lot of variety in the game, but sometimes this can be a bit overwhelming and the game is very complex, which I don't want for my game. However, by the end of the day, I felt worried that my idea was swaying a lot more towards the Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game, and I really don't want to make it look like that I am copying Yu-Gi-Oh, which is what I am really worried about. As I said, I really don't want to make it too complicated, as I want people to feel eased in to the game and will be very easy to play.

Another important thing that was mentioned today between myself and Lisa was possible career paths, and Art Therapy, which could be a possible career path, and something I will need to look more into, and speak to careers advisors at college about this. Also discussed this with counsellors, who both seemed quite happy for me to think this, but said that I would need extra training. Also Lisa mentioned that many Art Therapists also have another job as well as Art Therapy, and many do it voluntarily. I kind of hoped you could make a living from Art Therapy, but Lisa said she wasn't entirely sure, and all this could be discussed with the careers advisors at college. I'd also like to perhaps get an easygoing part time job, just to have a bit more financial independence from my parents, and hopefully the college careers advisors

For next week I hope to have had a much clearer idea in my head about my birthday, as this is very important to me, and would love to see a few friends to celebrate my birthday with. This weekend I might ask the people I have in mind that I wish to celebrate with, to give them notice in case they're already planning what they're doing in their Easter break.

I have also had a very good week socially at college, and I noticed that I am talking to people a lot more, and I am feeling much more comfortable around people I have been wanting to get to know better, which I feel so brilliantly good about.

Reflective Writing Exercise - rewriting 14/03/13

I feel so glad I have now decided on an idea of what it is I am going to do for the end of year art exhibition in June, the idea being making a set of Trading Cards which will be compatible with Augmented Reality, so that a 3D model of the Trading Card character will appear on a screen, which I feel separates my idea from existing trading card games out there, as I am unaware of my idea happening in many other places. I feel really excited about making my own trading cards, as I have had ideas of characters and objects I could make into trading cards for a while now.

To start my work on this project, I have started to collect images of things I think will be useful and relevant when it comes to the actual designing of my final product, and I hope that these images will help me in the development of my project in terms of structure, what it is I will design, and how I will design it, as I do really need to have some sort of guideline as to what I am actually doing on this project. I intended to get as much work done as possible today so I will have less work t do next week, specially since I have two pieces of written work to write, a 1000 word case study and a 1000 word "report" on how Pixar's development and success was influenced by social, political, and historical context. I am feeling very nervous about both of these things, as I haven't had much recent experience in writing essays, case studies and reports, and I think it's the fact as well that I may have to look over information again if I haven't remembered it all, and also the deadlines in which these need to be done.

This afternoon I worked on my journal, as I was struggling to think of ideas, but the journal is an important part of the module so it needs to be done. However, I really hope I'll be able to think of many more good ideas for influences and research, and also get this part of the module finished as soon as possible so I can focus on the other parts of the module as well as other things that are going to be important in my life, such as planning my birthday and the Easter Holidays, as well as enjoying my time outside of college, as this really means a lot to me as well.

This week I have been looking back at things I wrote a long time ago on my last course, which was a quite similar structure to this, and it was certainly very interesting to look back on what I was feeling, the things I was happy with, my hopes, ambitions and fears, and seeing what I wanted out of life back then. Some things I have overcome and achieved, but there's also a lot of things I wrote that unfortunately I haven't achieved and still find difficult, such as socialising at college, and I really hope and am really determined to make this better. I am starting to get on better with people at college and am certainly having far less lonely break times. But from what I wrote, people seemed a lot nicer than I remembered, and things I noticed about a lot of people haven't really changed all that much.

Reflective Writing Exercise - rewriting 07/02/2013

Today was hand in day, which is always quite a busy and stressful time, but despite this, and also the fact that I had quite a lot to do, including rigging and rendering my gladiator and my blog, I was feeling quite relaxed about it all, but I was hoping somehow that I would find the determination to get all my work done today.

The first thing I wanted to get finished was rigging my gladiator, as I really had to do this before anything else, and it was what was required from the brief. However, I couldn't really remember much about how to rig a 3D model. I have rigged 3D character models before, but the last time I rigged a character was around 9 months ago on my BTEC Interactive Media course, so I couldn't quite remember everything about rigging. However, Neil very kindly reminded me the basics of rigging, which I was really grateful for and by the end of the morning I managed to create a working "skeleton" for my gladiator model. However, this did take me a few attempts, and luckily setting up a skeleton doesn't take too long, but it was quite stressful working out what was wrong with my skeleton on the first few tries. The problem was quite noticeable, and it did take me a while to figure out what was wrong with it. The skeleton is supposed to be made from the waist, so that it can bend over correctly, and this is what I forgot to do. When I figured out the problem, and it did take me a short break and a bit of help from Neil, it was quite easy and quick to fix. I just had to attach the joint of the waist to the character rig, which was achieved by just a few mouse clicks in the animation tool area of Maya.

A late part of the process of the rigging of my gladiator. The skeleton is the green lines seen in the front and top views.

I feel that when you know what you are doing rigging isn't too difficult, and can animate your models after rigging however you want. If anybody was to learn about rigging in the future, I would seriously recommend watching some videos on YouTube about rigging, as they are really helpful and give a lot of detail about rigging. I think in the future with rigging, I will really need to remember what I have learned today, and this will make my work a lot quicker to do, and I would be able to get a lot more done because of this.

However, because I only really had today left, this was as far as I could go with my gladiator model, even though the brief would have liked me to have animated the model. I do feel pleased with what I have done, I really love the textures I have used, and even though this module has been very tough, I feel that this module has really improved my modelling and learning techniques and has really made me consider how to do my work in the future, and has made me realise in projects like this, I really need a strategy.

I feel that for future projects I will definitely need to manage my time more efficiently, and really super definitely try and understand more what is being asked of me in terms of research, as I found that part of the module, and getting feedback from that part of the module very stressful because of how unclear what it is I was supposed to research was, and to be honest I'm not sure if I understand the research I have done.

This afternoon I managed to get my reflective journal finished, which I had a lot to say in about this module, including today's entry. I also made a final render of my still gladiator, which is something, even though it is very simple, I always forget how to do, because if I wish to share and show off my 3D modelling work casually to my friends, I would just take a screen grab of the model. However, I do feel that I could probably now remember how to render models for the future from this experience. Hopefully.

My 3D gladiator in all his rendered glory.

However, I feel that over the past week, one thing that has really helped me to organise myself and has helped me to cope much better with my work is writing to do lists for work I needed to get done for specific dates in the week, and I feel that this skill is something I could really carry into fuure projects, and is a skill I have used in previous jobs and projects, and has really helped to organise myself and it also breaks down what I need to get done into manageable pieces.

25/04/13

I was really worried about the day ahead, as last night I did get really upset and overwhelmed about all the work I now have to do for the course before we break up for summer. Which is a lot. Even though dad and I spent a long time last night discussing everything that has been said at college this week, and having to repeat myself to dad so that he could help me to overcome my anxiety of the work, and having to repeat myself really didn't help my stress levels.

I got to college and explained to Lisa my support how I was feeling, as I do feel it's important to make people that can help me aware of how I am honestly feeling so that they can try to help me, even if it did take me a while to calm down about how overwhelmed I was with my work.

When I got back to the classroom, I spent the rest of the morning finishing off my character design sketches, which I am now really pleased with, and I feel that they have really developed so much from the simple and repetitive drawings I did over Easter, because I feel they show a lot more creativity and distinctiveness. I did have to research a couple more pictures of birds and talons, as I was considering one of my spirit designs to be based on a bird, and at this point was the only spirit I hadn't had a final design on, so I drew some more designs for the "wind" design, experimenting with different combinations and variations on what I thought represented "wind" well, such as birds and tornadoes. At the time of writing I can think of many more things that represented "wind," such as planes, but I do feel pleased with my designs, and I feel it is too late to start doing something completely new now, and I really need the time to think about what I need to do this weekend for this project.

This afternoon I was able to finish all of my final designs for all of my spirit characters, and was able to speak to Neil (B) about some things that were worrying me about this project and the end of year show, especially because of the booklet he gave the class yesterday, which had all the requirements needed for the project and the end of year show. I also needed to let him know equipment I will need to display my work today and have written him an email tonight about it, which he was requiring from every student today. Because I was a bit unsure about what equipment I will need, I spoke to him about what I will need, and the estimated size of the boards that can be borrowed (I'm thinking for my work I will need 2 boards.)

24/04/13

Because I haven't really done too much development work in my spare time this week, and I was very stressed and tired from last week, I was feeling extremely nervous about coming into college today. I knew I was a bit behind where I should be with the Spirit Rush project, but I just hoped I would catch up more today and get back on track with my work.

Today I continued some development sketches, and looked back at the sketches I did before (I sketched a cat for the "dark" spirit yesterday) and wanted to see if I could improve on them and if possible, decide on and finish final designs today.

Today was also the first time I used Illustrator in ages, which I have been nervous about, and am still unsure and can't remember much about Illustrator, but I will give it my best shot for this project. My knowledge on how to use Illustrator is quite limited, so if I do get stuck on anything, I will have to look it up as research. Today I quickly managed to make a rough template of the layout of the trading cards I will be making, and I am really glad I have made a start on this, as this will be essential for my project later on, and is a major part of my final product, as the idea of making these characters is for a trading card game.

I did get onto talking about bats this morning, as I know that they have very weak bone structure, and another student was looking at the bone structure for a cat, which triggered this fact in my brain. Also, bat rhymes with cat so I feel it was quite easy to have thought of that, and I was surprised that I hadn't thought that before. I also felt that bat represented darkness much more than the cat did when I drew some designs, and I thought that the designs were really improving as I was drawing these designs. I also started drawing the final character designs so that I will be ready to model them and create them digitally. I want to make all my spirits in 3D, so I feel that from what I have learned this year about 3D modelling, I should and will draw each spirit from a front view and a side view, and this should make it easier to model the characters, as I will have a template of each to work from.

Today we were also given a booklet on everything that will need to be done between now and the end of June, when the college's end of year show will be. Looking through it at first I was quite calm, although I did have a few questions, but when I got home it really occurred to me how much has really got to be done really in these next 4 1/2 weeks. PLUS I have my other module to think about, (which to be honest I find far less interesting than making Trading Cards) and that module is also asking a lot from me and when I got home I really panicked and it all got far too much. AND even though I have done some work today I do feel a bit behind where I need to be. I explained to my dad how I was feeling, and he tried to help by writing down all my worries and calming me down that evening by playing Nintendo Land with me, but I had to keep on reminding him why I was upset, which really added to my stress, even though he was only trying to help. All sorts of thoughts were going through my head, making me doubt myself and how well I am doing my course, which felt horrible. I just wish I could keep calmer in these situations, and feel I might need help in doing so. I haven't been the most relaxed person recently, mainly because of college but maybe because of other things too, such as how my family and peers expect me to be, and sometimes I do need some space and time to myself, and I have calmly told my dad this as well, and he seems very understanding about this as well.

Another thing that was mentioned today is, because I am looking into volunteering for helping people by being fun and creative, Lynda found this group that helps young disabled children by getting them to do lots of fun and creative things, and suggested I got into contact with the woman that organises these events to see if I can go along and observe what it is they do and see if I like it or not. It certainly sounds interesting, and will need to maybe discuss this further with my parents and see if they think it's a good idea. The next time they are meeting is the 9th May, which is a college day, but I think I will be allowed to go along and check it out as it is relevant work experience for what I might want to do as a career.

23/04/13

I was feeling quite nervous about today, because of it being a new week, not really knowing what to expect, and some of the things that happened last week were on my mind, and I feel that since last week I have done quite a lot to prepare for future life at college, which I have explained in further detail  in another entry.

So because I managed to get my laptop connected to the college wifi, I decided to bring my laptop to college for the first time in ages, and for the first time in any module with Neil (W), which did feel a bit weird, but good at the same time as I was trying something different. I also brought it in to save me printing off my blog/journal entries, and also loads of paper, and was also one of the main reasons why I wanted to get my laptop connected to the college wi-fi in the first place to make life and doing work at college easier.

Learnt about the 7 key elements of reflective writing, Describing, Contextualising, Analysing, Critique, Evaluating, Theorising, and Synthesising, all of which has made me think about my own reflective writing and that I should really try and put all of these things to practice.

We were then given a couple of examples of other people's reflective writing, and we had to highlight which parts we thought related to the key elements of Reflective Writing.

Were given other tasks about reflective writing, such as action plans to improve reflective writing, which I feel I will try and apply to my reflective writing, as well as thinking of topics to go into my reflective writing.

23/04/13 (class exercise)

It's good that I am actually doing my Learning Journal in Neil (W)'s lecture ON MY LAPTOP!!!!!!! Although now at the time of writing I am told I am not allowed to write about today's session right now (I'll come back to it later)
Ok ermmm.... I was so pleased with myself that I managed to finally work out how to connect my laptop to the college wi-fi yesterday! I wanted to do this for today's lecture, to make this lecture and really life at college a lot easier. However, from previous experience I am quite concerned about leaving my laptop around and losing it, so I am going to have to be really super careful when I do bring my laptop to college in the future.
Also in preparation for future college projects, and also for a bit of fun as well, I bought myself a graphics tablet from PC World so I can draw things much easier on my laptop. This will be so useful for college projects if I wish to enhance my sketches onto a digital format such as Photoshop and Illustrator and will make my work look so much more professional.

I suppose something else I can talk about in this task is something that has recently inspired me, and I feel I have a lot to write about. For my birthday last week, I got a Wii U, which came with the excellent game Nintendo Land, a game which I have really enjoyed playing, especially with my dad, and I feel that it has many bright and colourful features which could influence my work somehow. I have also noticed in this game the design styles used, and it has been pointed out to me that style is very important in designing things (so for instance, realistic characters wouldn't match a cartoon world.) This game does have a very cartoony feel to it, and I really like how a lot of the contents of the game are made out of materials such as fabric and cardboard, which reminds me a lot of the games LittleBigPlanet, as well as other Nintendo franchises such as Yoshi's Island and Kirby, and I feel that this style would't be a bad idea for Nintendo to base future projects on, and I am quite fascinated in using this style in some of my own work.

The purpose of the game Nintendo Land is to get players used to the Wii U Game Pad controls in the form of 12 different minigames in a theme park setting, based on 12 different Nintendo franchises, and some are single player and some can be played with friends and family (from what I've typed so far I'd make a terrible journalist, I'm probably making this sound really boring!) I have now played all of the mini games, and I'd say my favourite is the Legend of Zelda Battle Quest, based on the Legend of Zelda series where you battle enemies wielding a sword and shield or bow and arrow to retrieve the Triforce, and can do this alone or up to four players.

I like that all the minigames, unlike a lot of other games in this genre, are actually quite challenging, yet people that don't play games much can easily learn the controls for each minigame. Some are a lot more challenging than others, the most challenging by far in my opinion being Donkey Kong's Crash Course, where you have to guide a cradle along a complicated "crash course" based on the 1980s Donkey Kong game by tilting the game pad and pressing buttons to activate different platforms. However, the cradle is very fragile, and will break if dropped or turned over slightly, making the game quite difficult, and I have yet to fully complete this course without losing all my lives.